TransLink to open up 3,500 additional park-and-ride spaces

Nearly 3,500 additional parking stalls have been created at or near public transit stations as Metro Vancouver gears up to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Beginning Friday and running until Feb. 28, most of the extra spaces will be available 24 hours a day. Costs will vary from free (in Port Moody, Langley and Pitt Meadows) to $7 an hour at Richmond’s Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel. The idea is to encourage Olympic visitors from across the region to leave their vehicles at home.

“We are looking at this as an opportunity for people to see just what the public transportation system can do for them, particularly in the northeast sector where people are really still car-dependent,” TransLink spokesman Drew Snider said.

Snider said road closures in Vancouver related to the Games have already pushed transit rider numbers up.

The newly announced parking spaces are in addition to existing park-and-ride facilities.